THE GENESEE FARMER 



15 



ever export wheat and other crops and suffer no de- 

 terioration. Our Ohio friends will pardon us for 

 sug-gesting that now is the time to adopt a compen- 

 sating system of tillage and husbandry, and not wait 

 Qutil the horse is stolen before they lock the stable 

 door. 



SUPERPHOSPUATE OP LIME. 



This fertilizer has been the theme of considerable 

 discussion in back volumes of this journal, and gave 

 rise to some remarks by Mr. Harris, over his initials, 

 to which exceptions were taken by a writer in the 

 Penusijlvania Farm Journal for November, 1858. 

 Regarding the subject as too important to be left in 

 any doubt, so far as any consequence attaches to the 

 opinions of the Genesee Farmer, we will endeavor to 

 set the matter in its true light before our readers. 

 The writer alluded to (Mr. A. Marshall) says: 



In the Genesee Farmer of September last, page 281, there 

 is an article headed " Mapes' Improved Superpliosphate 

 of Lime.''' The writer, after enumerating some crops fur 

 which he regards the use of superphosphate highly advan- 

 tageous, thus proceeds : *' For wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, 

 and, we believe, though we have no experiments of our 

 own to sustain the opinion, that for corn and timothy, su- 

 perphosphate of lime, in ninety-nine cases out of one hun- 

 dred, will be found of no essential value." Fearing the 

 above statement, coming from such high authority, might 

 mislead some of our own agriculturists in the use of a valu- 

 able fertilizer, I beg leave to quote some experiments 

 leading to a difterent conclusion. 



Here follows an account of the api^lication of six 

 bushels of bone dust to a piece of poor ground, by 

 which it was made to produce, first, a good crop of 

 rye, and after that five crops of timothy in succession, 

 with a slight dressing of gj^Dsum each spring. Other 

 instances are named where Mr. Ma pes' "improved 

 superphosphate of lime " operated very beneficially. 



While the nitrogenous matter in the bone dust, and 

 the ammonia in Mr. Mapes' fertilizei", contributed 

 something to the additional growth of crops, we regard 

 it as alike erroneous and unwise to say that phos- 

 phate of lime, without the ammoniacal element, "is 

 of no essential value for wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, 

 corn, and timothy." The proprietor and responsible 

 editor of the Genesee Farmer has always allowed 

 gentlemen writing for it, over their proper names or 

 initials, to express their views freely on agricultural 

 topics, which, of course, go to the public for what they 

 are worth. In this way the best thoughts, the exten- 

 sive reading, and large experience of many persons, 

 are given to those that consult the Farmer for pro- 

 fessional information. Now that the proprietor is 

 able to attend to the office duties of his journal in 

 pei-son, he trusts that no well-informed reader will 

 hereafter find occasion to complain of any thing in its 

 columns that shall appear to weaken its univei-sally 

 aclmowledged "high authority." We are all liable 

 to err; and nothing but diligent studj^, long experi- 

 ence, and accurate discrimination, can save one who 

 writes nmch on the complex and numerous arts and 

 sciences that appertain to rural affairs, from presenting 

 false views of the relations of thins;s. Just now. 

 Prof. Way, Mr. Lawes, and other leading agricultural 

 writers in Fugland, are magnifying the importance 

 and value of ammonia in producing wheat, barley. 



oats, and the other crops named by Mr. Harris as 

 not being benefitted by phosphate of hme. While 

 we concede the great value of ammonia or nitric acid 

 as a fertilizer, we claim that phosphoric acid, sulphur, 

 chlorine, potash, lime, and magnesia, are equally indis- 

 pensal>le elements of agricultural plants. The criti- 

 cal reader will see in the " manure " named below a 

 large amount of ashes and lime, but no ammonia, 

 except the very little that may be presumed to exist 

 in the "street manure," which usually contains far 

 more clay and sand than dung of horses or other 

 animals: 



A correspondent of the Ceiitei-ville (Md.) Times relates 

 the success of a farmer of that county by a liberal use of 

 manure. It appears he purchased the farm in 1844, pre- 

 vious to which it scarcely produced enough to support a 

 family ; and since then, now nine years, he has used 10,998 

 bushels ashes, 17,805 bushels stone lime, and 9,700 of shell 

 lime, beside street manure, in all costing $3,224. In 1844 

 the produce of the farm sold for $491, and was gradually 

 increased until 1852, when it sold for .f 3,504. The sales 

 of the nine years amount to $16,215, or $12,990 over and 

 above the cost of the manure. At the rate of yield of 

 1S44, the aggregate sales of the nine years would have 

 amounted to only $4,424, so that he has a clear gain from 

 produce alone of $8,506, by the application of manure for 

 nine years ; in addition to which his farm, of 308 acres, 

 which in 1840 was assessed at $4,928, is this year assessed 

 at $10,780 — increase in value, $5,852. During the nine 

 years he also sold $1,900 worth of wood and rails, making 

 a total increase of $16,318. 



The facts so concisely stated in the above para- 

 graph, present a most important study to the agricul- 

 tural student. The why and the ivherefore such re- 

 sults were attained by the use of lime and ashes, are 

 agricultural problems of the highest practical signifi- 

 cance. These ashes contained no element more valua- 

 ble than phosphoric acid ; and we have been creditably 

 informed by farmers in the Connecticut valley, that 

 they somethues pay as high as thh'ty and forty cents 

 a bushel for good wood ashes to apply to their broom 

 corn land. The longer we investigate the elements 

 of fertility, the deeper is our conviction that the value 

 of these elements is not known except to a very limited 

 degree. More facts of a reliable character are needed 

 before the true powers, separate and combined, of 

 potash, bone earth, ammonia, gypsum, common salt, 

 wood a.shes, and lime, can be known. Salt has been 

 used as a manure some three or four thousand years; 

 but like the phosphate of lime, of which our bones 

 are principally formed, it has never been properly 

 studied as the food of plants. Prof. Way has said: 

 " The soil, when pulverised, will absorb ammonia from 

 the atmosphere during a wintei's exposure, estimated 

 as equal to a dressing of two hundred weight (224 

 pounds) of guano." If this statement be true, it aids 

 us in understanding how tillage and such mirierals as 

 phosphate of lime, g-j-psum, salt, and common wood 

 ashes, enrich a farm without purchasing costly ammo- 

 nia. As all manure is drawn primarily from the 

 earth and atmosphere, we cherish the belief that far 

 more of the constituents of wheat and other crops 

 may be extracted from the ground and air, and at 

 a cost so small as to supply cheap manure to the^ 

 farmer. 



We do hope that a few at least will see the ira 

 portance of testing this matter of drawing alkalies, 

 phosphoric and sulphuric acids, and chlorine, from as 



